“The Devourer of All Things, Parts I”
Star Trek: Prodigy dives headfirst into some high-concept science-fiction as our protagonists finally arrive at their long-awaited objective, only to stumble upon a familiar face and a high-stakes temporal war.
After their stops at the Kazon-robot planet and the non-corporeal colony, the Infinity and its band of young weary travelers arrive at the coordinates Gwyn (Ella Purnell)saw in her psychedelic vision. (Don’t worry, there’s a healthy bit of exposition to catch you up on our characters’ main quest.) They arrive at a problem when they do drop out of warp: nothing is there. The absence of a planet doesn’t fool the science-loving Rok-Tahk (Rylee Alazraqui), as the behavior of nearby stellar debris does indicate a large gravitational body is nearby. A quick modulation of the ship’s transporter routed through the shields yadda yadda technobabble soon reveals a hidden planet, one trapped within quantum realities, just like Gwyn.
Arriving on this mystery world, Dal (Brett Gray), Gwyn, Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas), Rok, Zero (Angus Imrie), and Murf (Dee Bradley Baker) find a seemingly abandoned temple-esque structure, but exploration of the temple’s interior offers no hints about Chakotay’s whereabouts. The crew stumbles upon a vault door, the same kind you’d see in a modern-day bank, and who comes out to greet them? Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton, reprising his role from The Next Generation).
Just what is the now-middle-aged wunderkind-turned-Traveler doing on this hidden planet? Unfortunately for the crew, not hanging out with Chakotay. Instead, Wesley, a self-described “time traveler who has run out of time,” is engaged in an incredibly high-stakes fight against temporal hunters, creatures who eat timelines. The creatures have started their temporal destruction thanks to the paradox in which our heroes are involved – that is, needing to find the Protostar so they can assemble in the way they are meant to.
As Wesley explains in a substantial info dump, there are many, many timelines, universes, planes of existence, quantum realities, and the like. He knows this because he and other Travelers watch over the cosmos with three key factors in play: space, time, and thought. The universe he and the kids are currently in is the Prime Timeline, a term familiar to anyone who knows that “canon” Star Trek is what has occurred in the Prime Timeline – namely, what’s in the movies and TV shows.
There are other universes, Wesley explains, like the Mirror Universe, the Narada Incursion (as seen in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies), Fluidic Space (as seen in Star Trek: Voyager), and the mycelial plane (from Star Trek: Discovery). It’s a lot for the kids, and the audience, to wrap their heads around, but the gist is this: a major temporal war is afoot, and everything in this grand tapestry of realities is at stake. Wesley is the only Traveler who even has a prayer at fixing it.
If you are a fan of Star Trek novels, all this talk of timeline hunters, Wesley’s effort to stop them, and every universe being at stake is mighty similar to the Star Trek: Coda book series that was released in the last couple of years, to the point where we have to imagine Prodigy’s writers drew inspiration from this series. The Coda series is a big deal because it effectively closed the non-canonical series of Star Trek stories in a way that paid respect to the all-important Prime Timeline. If you are intrigued by the kind of timeline-based shenanigans Prodigy is playing in, we definitely recommend giving the Coda books a try.
Wesley tells the crew they can’t go back to the Protostar just yet because he was able to pull a Dr. Strange and view just one eventuality that does successfully lead the crew to their ship – although he doesn’t exactly know what this additional and unforeseen variable is yet. While Wesley is describing the temporal situation to Dal’s crew, the temple is invaded by the Loom, the creatures that are devouring timelines and those within them.
Gwyn and Wesley are spared from the frozen-time status that afflicts everyone else, so they race through the temple, dodging the Loom, to secure time-stabilizing armbands the rest of the Infinity crew can wear. During the chase, we learn Wesley was the one trying to contact the youngsters through indirect methods (to help try and avoid the Loom), so that’s one lingering question answered. After a couple close calls with these cullers of time, Wesley and the crew escape the hidden planet to… where exactly? We see these characters transported to a relaxing, modern-day room on what we assume is Earth, but where exactly they are will have to wait for the next episode.
In “The Devourer of All Things, Part I,” Prodigy blows open its main plot, and it’s an exciting time for long-time Star Trek fans. This episode’s high-concept narrative is right at home with Star Trek’s most out-there science fiction, and the fact that Prodigy tackles the entire Star Trek universe in the form of Wesley’s “grand tapestry” should not be overlooked. It’s a huge task for a show presumably aimed at kids. The show’s protagonists have inadvertently found themselves at the center of a conflict that impacts not just their universe, but all universes within the Star Trek franchise. It’s just wild.
“Edward, I only have three rules for captaining a starship: Keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew.”
– Janeway to Jellico.
Back on Voyager, Admiral Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and her crew are playing catchup. Janeway receives a message from Admiral Jellico (Ronnie Cox), who orders Janeway to call off her pursuit of the Infinity… but of course, Janeway doesn’t follow orders and pursues the Starfleet hopefuls through the transwarp tunnel. On the other side, they reveal the planet and Janeway orders the ship to investigate where the kids disappeared, not knowing of the Loom waiting for them.
“The Devourer of All Things, Part I” is an incredibly fascinating episode because it elevates this season to impressive sci-fi heights. The arrival of Wil Wheaton’s Wesley Crusher seems like a natural excuse for this legacy appearance – as opposed to, perhaps, the last time Wesley showed up unannounced. You’ll definitely want to start the second part of this two-parter ASAP to see where the kids landed after their trip through Wesley’s vault, what needs to happen for the Prime Timeline to correct itself, and how Janeway and her ship will handle the Loom.
Stray Thoughts:
- Wesley makes the comment about having “more sweaters than you would believe,” which is likely a cheeky reference to the character’s varied and colorful wardrobe from The Next Generation.
- Wesley hints that the Temporal Wars, as mentioned in Enterprise and Discovery, took a real toll on the number of Travelers available to help maintain the cosmic balance.
- Wesley mistakes an innocuous comment from one of the Protostar crewas them knowing about the Supervisors, the agents who, as we learn in Star Trek: Picard, work with the Travelers to ensure the integrity of the timeline.
- There is a model of a Sovereign-class ship, likely the Enterprise-E, in Wesley’s hidden storage compartment in the temple
“The Devourer of All Things, Parts II”
Wesley and his co-opted crew arrive in a room modeled after Gary Seven’s office, as seen in The Original Series. It’s an appropriate setting, as the Travelers and Supervisors, of which Gary Seven was one, work together to monitor the cosmos. This room is supposedly safe from the Loom, so our protagonists have a chance to breathe and unravel the situation facing them. And it’s a mighty terrible situation, as Wesley shares with the gung-ho Dal that the Loom can erase every aspect of a person from existence, right down to memories of that person held by other people.
Janeway and her crew soon find how horrible the Loom can be, as Voyager’s away team, which consists of Commander Tysess (Daveed Diggs), a crewmember who might as well be named Ensign Red Shirt, and Maj’el, who argued her way onto the away team by promoting her telepathic link to Zero. The team is equipped with a modified version of the Doctor’s temporal discriminator, should they encounter temporal entities.
The away mission devolves quickly, as the trio come under attack by the Loom. Of course, Ensign Red Shirt suffers a fairly gruesome death at the hands of a Loom, and Tysess orders a retreat to Voyager. Abandoning Zero doesn’t sit right with Maj’el, who does quite the un-Vulcan thing and stays behind, much to her own danger. Tysess’ return to Voyager illustrates how the Loom can completely erase someone from existence, as Admiral Janeway doesn’t even remember Ensign Red Shirt beam down to the planet, nor does the Doctor have any medical records of this person. (Okay, fine, his name is Middleton, and he is played by MacGregor Middleton, a Prodigy producer.)
Maj’el is indeed in mortal danger in the temple, and her presence in the Vault just recently vacated by our heroes quickly becomes an issue for Wesley and the Infinity crew. The youngsters, especially Zero, want to rescue the Vulcan from the encroaching Loom, but Wesley resists, opting to leave Maj’el where she is to avoid attracting the temporal hunters. Luckily for Maj’el, Dal takes matters into his own hands and opts to transport her to the Supervisor’s room, which makes for a lovely reunion between the Vulcan and Dal, not to mention her shipmates.
“It’s alright now. You’re with us.”
“Zero? You look so… you have…”
“Begun to grow beyond my programming, in the words of the good doctor. As have you, it seems.”
– Maj’el and Zero.
Maj’el’s transfer to Gary Seven’s room means the Loom have found our heroes and force them back to the temple so Wesley can quickly finish the calculations he was working on before the first Loom attack. Unfortunately, the crew can’t escape the planet thanks to the Infinity being overrun by Loom. But where one ship is disintegrated, another appears, as Voyager soon makes a heroic arrival to ward off the Loom and save the Starfleet hopefuls.
Yep, in typical mid-season finale fashion, we are treated to a striking set piece featuring the Voyager-A hovering above the temple as the all-but-indestructible Loom swarms outside and inside the ship. As expected, quite a few inconsequential Voyager crew are devoured by the Loom in short order, leaving the helpless mortals scrambling to devise a strategy. Janeway barely escapes the bridge, while the Doctor in sickbay struggles to equip the humanoids onboard with the same temporal discriminators as the ill-fated away team.
Janeway soon enough is done f****** around and goes into badass mode, indicated by her change in uniform; the struggle of the conflict means she ditches her captain’s uniform and assumes a gray tank top, like what she wears in Voyager’s “Macrocosm,” and uses one of Voyager’s shuttles to lead the attacking Loom down to the surface. It’s a noble diversion, especially since it ends with Janeway’s shuttle crashing into the temple.
With the time given to them by Janeway and her crew, Wesley and his band of time savers arrive at a startling conclusion: while we know there is one sequence of events that leads to our heroes saving their universe, this sequence doesn’t just involve Rak-Tahk, Jankom, Dal, Gwyn, Murf, and Zero. Just as Wesley’s time machine is about to show them the next location on this all-important quest, Wesley realizes there’s another factor at play here: Maj’el.
Before the seven bonded crewmates can escape the temple, they get one last meeting with Janeway, who managed to find her way from her shuttle’s crash site to Wesley’s time machine. Despite Janeway’s insistence that they all return to Voyager and escape the planet, Wesley asserts the decision is up to the seven beings who are responsible for saving the timeline.
How can Janeway stop them? She can’t, and gives them her blessing to complete their mission. Stepping through Wesley’s time portal, the time savers find themselves perched on a mountaintop overlooking an incredible sun-kissed vista, and what’s right in front of them? The Protostar, with Chakotay awaiting them.
A fairly consequential episode, yeah? Even more so considering something we left out: This episode marks a milestone in Dal’s journey. A cryptic hint of things to come stems from both Wesley absentmindedly mentioning Dal’s gut won’t always serve him well, and Dal accidentally glimpsing a future where it appears he is giving up the captaincy of the Protostar to Gwyn. It seems the future is quite uncertain for the de facto captain of the Protostar. Just how will his captaincy unravel, and why does it appear Gwyn is becoming the rightful holder of the center chair?
“The Devourer of All Things” duology is a fascinating catalyst for this season’s overarching plot. These episodes blend a sensible and welcome legacy character appearance, substantial lore building, and high stakes to create an engaging plot that resonates with long-time fans while propelling the protagonists’ journey forward. The arrival of Wesley Crusher opens a timeline-spanning dilemma that puts an enormous weight on the shoulders of our young heroes and brings them together in a way no “normal” challenge could.
In the short term, the crew appears to be back at the source of this temporal paradox, the Protostar, and finally have a chance to regain control of their ship and have Chakotay play a pivotal role in this season’s events. Otherwise, we are also curious to see how Admiral Janeway and the Voyager continue to play a role in this season; this episode ends with the once-hidden planet, Wesley, and the Starfleet hopefuls disappearing out of Janeway’s reach. What’s next for the admiral?
Stray Thoughts:
- Tysess swears on the Wall of Heroes that he will guard Maj’el with his life. This wall on Andoria was mentioned in Enterprise’s “United.”
- Wesley’s time-traveling machine in the temple is apparently made of “modified Boreth crystals near the Orb of Time.” Those crystals were seen in Discovery’s memorable “Through the Valley of Shadows,” while the Orb of Time is one of the nine Tears of the Prophets, and was most notably seen in Deep Space Nine’s “Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night.”
- Why does Janeway recognize Wesley so quickly, even before she gets a good look at the man’s face? As far as we know, the two have never interacted, and even pictures of Wesley from his Starfleet service would have been quite outdated by this time.
- Something to pay attention to this season: Does the Loom’s ability to erase things from time apply to items as well as people? Will anybody in the rest of the season remember the Infinity?
The Star Trek: Prodigy voice cast includes Kate Mulgrew (Hologram Kathryn Janeway), Brett Gray (Dal), Ella Purnell (Gwyn), Rylee Alazraqui (Rok-Tahk), Angus Imrie (Zero), Jason Mantzoukas (Jankom Pog), Dee Bradley Baker (Murf), John Noble (The Diviner) and Jimmi Simpson (Drednok) in addition to recurring voice cast members: Robert Beltran (Captain Chakotay), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Jason Alexander (Doctor Noum), Daveed Diggs (Commander Tysess), Jameela Jamil (Ensign Asencia), Ronny Cox (Admiral Jellico) and Michaela Dietz (Maj’el).
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